In the fields of construction and renovation, there is often a need for work support structures on which construction materials or objects can be temporarily secured, at a convenient working height, while they are sawn or otherwise worked with hand-held tools. In the current art this function is most often performed with trestle type supports (e.g. saw horses.) There is also frequently a concurrent need for devices that provide support, at a convenient working height, for portable bench-type power tools, and auxiliary infeed, outfeed and sidefeed support for the same (workstations.) In the current art this function is most often performed with tool stands. Existing portable tool stands for “feed-through” type tools (such as portable table saws) frequently sacrifice optimum workpiece support to meet their requirement for portability and/or are otherwise difficult to re-configure in a manner that suits the varying needs of the user from task to task.
Existing portable tool stands for “in place” type tools (such as power miter saws) are dedicated solely to those types of tool, requiring the user to own multiple sets of stands in addition to a set of work supports for use with hand-held tools, and to dismount one tool and replace it with another.
In the fields of maintenance/repair/refinishing there is often a need for support structures whose performance does not degrade in the presence of the oils, coatings, solvents and adhesives used, which allow spent (or unused) fluids to drain through, and which provide access to all sides of the object being worked upon.
In temporary and re-configurable Light-Manufacturing settings there is a need for readily reconfigurable work support structures that can be extended indefinitely to the user's requirements or that can be deployed in independent assemblages, used in conjunction with one another, that share a common working height.
In the DIY (“do it yourself”) sphere there is a need for a user to be able to do some or all of the above on an irregular and intermittent basis; placing a premium on a single reconfigurable structure to answer all occasions and all needs of a user.
In the current art work support structures are of three basic types, one based on a collapsible trestle (e.g., folding sawhorses), another based on a collapsible column and the third based on the table (e.g., traditional “woodworker's bench”).
The use of all collapsible trestle and collapsible column support devices carry a common set of risks; each with numerous undesirable consequences.
The most frequent and consequential of these is the risk of cutting through (or into) the trestle beam (or column top) while performing a cut or other operation. Work supported on a single pair of trestles carries an additional risk that is also experienced when a trestle beam is completely severed. As the cut progresses, the forces acting on the workpiece (and/or the trestle beam) will either begin to bring the emerging parts into compression against one another, or cause them to fall away from one another.
In the first instance the cutting edge(s) can become bound in the cut; with undesirable consequences. Additionally, the movement of the parts before the completion of the cut will introduce a bevel into the plane of the cut which degrades the quality of the joint that can be produced between that plane and another part. In the second instance the workpiece may tear apart before the cut is completed.
In any event, when the cut is completed (or when the workpiece separates spontaneously) the two resulting parts are suddenly no longer supported on three or more points, but each, only on two or fewer. It is about these new-formed axes that both parts will wish to rotate, or in the absence of any support, will commence to fall. This may pose a safety hazard to the operator and risks damaging either or both the keeper and the offcut.
In the current art the use of two or more pairs of trestles (or even of a single pair) in close proximity to one another is often impossible, owing to the interference of their legs with each other.
In the current art work support structures based on the table, by virtue of it having a top, may prevent access to the underside of a workpiece. Moreover, since its support is provided by the table top surface, it is only off of that surface that the portion of a tool's cutting edges that projects below the cut does not cut into or through that table top.
A need therefore exists for work support structures and workstations that are lightweight, provide stability and securement for workpieces and/or portable power tools, that neutralize the risks inherent in the use of the devices of the current art, and that may be readily re-configured to optimize one or more functions of tool and/or workpiece support.
All expressions of the prior art coalesce around creating a single object (which then may, or may not, be used in groups); or of a single use device. In addition to the improvements in safety and utility, and the combination of features not heretofore available together; it is the ready reconfigurability of this kit of parts, to accommodate a wide variety of requirements, which constitutes a significant novelty of this invention.